Articulated

VIA is intended as a long-distance intercity rail carrier, not to provide local service. It is not very efficient or cost-effective if most of its seats departing Toronto get loaded up with passengers only going to Oshawa, then a half-full train continues east of there. Also, the more "local" travellers it serves, the longer it takes to serve these station stops, which makes the ride longer for the intercity travelers (possibly encouraging them to drive). It's like the old saying "jack of all trades, master of none" - if you try to have one service do everything, it will end up doing none of those roles well. Leave the long-distance trains to the long-distance travelers.

VIA does restrict some travel within "local" zones; for example, trips between Guildwood and Toronto Union are not permitted, and neither is Fallowfield-Ottawa. But it appears that you are allowed to book between Toronto and Oshawa, and the same goes for Toronto-Oakville-Aldershot.

Why are they only starting the tender process for constructing the stations when the tunnelling has been underway for the past two years? Underground stations aren't like a house that can go up in 6 months... I have a feeling there will be a long delay between when the tunnels/tracks are ready and when the line is able to accept passengers. If you look at Line 5 right now, trains have been able to run through the full length of the line for a while now. It's the station work that is holding things up the most.

We don't know what the artic assignments will be once all of the 9400s have entered service. There are plenty of possibilities of routes that will be involved, but if you take all of the candidates (905, 927, 939, 953) then there isn't enough. All we do know is that the 9400s will be assigned to both McNicoll and Mount Dennis. But even the split between those divisions is not known; or if McNicoll will be an entirely XDE60 division or if some LFS Artics stick around. Tl dr: It's all idle speculation until movements actually happen.

TTC negotiates each contract separately with the manufacturer. They usually contain penalties for various things, including late delivery. In the past, Orion in particular was happy to "pay" those penalty costs with extra vehicles, which was part of the contract that was negotiated. They were a smaller builder, though, and had multi-year contracts set up with the TTC already, so tacking an extra bus or two onto the next years' order wasn't much of an issue with how they structured their business. New Flyer and Nova both plan their production lines out for 1-2+ years in advance, so fitting in penalty buses at the end of the current order would cause issues/delays with their other customers. It could also mean TTC won't recover their penalties until the manufacturer has space to accommodate the equivalent of a "small order", which coule potentially be multiple years later. Plus, in recent years TTC has largely made one huge single order (rather than a series of multi-year contracts), so it's not really possible to "tack on" a couple of penalty buses to the next order if they're not even certain when that next order might be. Given the above factors, it wouldn't surprise me if any damages for late delivery were in the form of liquid penalties (i.e. cash). They could be in other receivables that could be negotiated too, such as warranty extensions or credit for future parts/maintenance.

Normally, yes; although the conventional eBuses started at 2150+. I'm wondering if Brampton Transit is modifying their numbering system slightly by using xx50+ to represent 40 foot hybrid units, as the original 40 foot Züm orders were all XDE40s (same as what's arriving now).

Completed!

*cries in York Region* Get used to it, fares need to keep up with inflation in order to continue to cover the cost of providing service. Don't like it? How about some service reductions instead.

For the sake of posterity, 521 re-entered service on March 14, and 533 re-entered service on March 15 (both on route 23). This brings us up to 10/16 conversions in service.

It was also taken completely against sun angle. That photo should not have been uploaded in the first place. Deleted.

Bump! And a big update at that. Fort Saskatchewan is replacing its fleet. Based on the photo provided in a news article, the new buses will also be Arboc cutaways (same as the current fleet), but with a red roofline instead of navy. The first bus is numbered #FS001. The current fleet of three 2016 Arbocs will be transferred by Pacific Western over to Tofino-Ucluelet, to operate their new system. Fort Saskatchewan is also modifying their commuter route to operate to Bethel Transit Terminal in Sherwood Park, instead of Clareview. The City has signed a 3-year agreement with Strathcona County Transit to operate the service, effective July.

More details on the upcoming service are coming out, this time from a Times-Colonist article. The contractor will be Pacific Western (not a huge surprise), who will be operating out of a temporary space in the Long Beach Airport. The buses to be used on the service are three Arbocs being transferred from Fort Saskatchewan Transit. Mobile fares will use the Token Transit app, although physical tickets will also be sold at retailers in Tofino and Ucluelet. Fares will be $5.50 for a single ride, $10 for a Day Pass, $50 for a 10-ride booklet, and $100 for a mobile monthly pass.

The above moves have been completed, with links adjusted to point to the new page names.

Link to the schedule: https://www.acrd.bc.ca/wc-transit?sfnsn=wa&mibextid=VhDh1V Service will run 7 days a week, from 6:30am to 7pm. Weekday service will consist of 7 round trips providing hourly service (using 2 buses) and every 2 hours (using one bus) on weekends. There will be a gap during the midday period as a result, but it will provide the ability for residents to commute to/from Tofino. Do we know who is the contractor that will be operating the service? All service starts/ends at the Ucluelet end, so I have to imagine the vehicles are based around there. Overall, I'm glad to see the service finally get off the ground after years of delay, even if it is not as initially planned for, and hope it ends up being successful.

Probably on hold until new articulated buses actually enter service. Additionally, 927 may need to wait until Line 6 opens, which would free up the artics currently in use on route 36.

Slightly incorrect based on my reading of the page, but given the complexity of the changes it's understandable... Next board period, the 25/925 and 81 will stop outside the station on Lipton Avenue. Only the 72 will continue to pick up inside the station (at "Platform 2", the west half of the current double-length 25/925 platform). "Platform 1", or the 72's current platform, will be used as drop-offs for all routes, so at least a connection inside the fare-paid area is maintained. I can't wait to see the chaos at Pape Station (again) when all of the bus layover space both inside and out gets removed. Those spots on Lipton are usually used by 25/925 buses laying over, and schedules are usually padded enough that most buses on both routes get at least a full headway worth of layover. Also, my favourite part of that webpage: Looks like nobody bothered to proofread the page before it got published.

BC Transit has purchased a proprrty for the future Uptown Exchange at 3657 Harriet Road: https://www.timescolonist.com/local-news/province-buys-harriet-road-property-for-uptown-douglas-transit-exchange-8418457

No, 0831 entered service last week. It is the first (and currently, only) of the current batch of used buses to enter service.

It is difficult to compare. Some of these changes are simply returning to pre-COVID levels, such as evening service on Stouffville; some changes are beyond anything pre-COVID levels (Lakeshore never had service above 30 min on weekends); and yet many parts of the network are not back to pre-COVID service levels (namely rush hour service on all lines, plus Lakeshore used to have 15 min service weekday middays). That being said, we're now arriving at 4 years since COVID hit, and we need to stop thinking about getting "back to how things used to be" and start orienting the future to how society has evolved.

Completed!

Lucien L'Allier Station will be closing on April 1 for 6-12 months in order to do a full reconstruction of the train platforms. The three exo lines that serve it will terminate at the closest Métro stations to downtown: lines 11 (Vaudreuil/Hudson) and 14 (Candiac) will terminate at Vendôme, while line 12 (St-Jérôme) will terminate at Parc. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/lucien-lallier-closing-repairs-1.7135647

The Viva units actually have higher mileage than 501-520. While in recent years (aka post-COVID) the A330s have had a relatively light duty due to excess units, before then they were operating all day 7 days a week, and had extra duties on Pink, Green, and occasionally Purple. Since 501-520 were converted for conventional service in 2013-14, they have been exclusively used during rush hours, and have been 'last-resort' buses as they are not well liked at Southwest. So they've been getting less mileage than the all-day shifts that the Viva units were getting.

All three moves completed, and page links updated to the new titles.

What exactly is the safety issue here? UP operates on a completely grade-separated corridor. Over the past decade, Metrolinx has made significant infrastructure upgrades along the corridor for the purpose of removing any potential points of conflict with pedestrians or other users, and even more specifically walling off the corridor to prevent any access from pedestrians attempting to cross. This seems like a pretty clear case of two kids intentionally trespassing and walking along tracks they shouldn't have been.

Is there a list available of which routes and which buses operate out of the new Northfield garage?